Research Paper on "Analyzing Competitors Analysis and Competitive Strategy"

Research Paper 10 pages (3083 words) Sources: 10 Style: APA

[EXCERPT] . . . .

2. Sony Corporation is acknowledged not only for their prominence in electronics, but also for their entertainment. The company ardently takes part and engages in music and video production and entertainment. The company not only produces music, but they produce films in the movie industry as well.

3. The enormous range and scope of Sony products is constructive, as it magnifies the consumer base, making it possible for a diversity of products and services to be available for purchase.

4. Sony Corporation is well positioned in emerging economies. In particular, the company's brand is strongly entrenched in Brazil, Russia, India and China, also referred to as the BRIC economies. The aforementioned expanses are emerging markets and constitute more than 40% of the population of the world. Sony Corporation is planning on taking the same path of its model that experienced great success in India through the concentration of television film as well as music product content. The company has an objective of doubling its revenues in these emerging markets.

Weaknesses

1. The high expenses incurred in media production, particularly in the company's television business operations, have influenced the pricing strategy of the company. A major weakness is that company's television business has lost out on an amount equivalent to $6.2 billion in the past eight years running. This in turn has caused the company to lose out on its market share to different manufacturers such as Samsung and LG Corporation.

2. As Sony Corporation has been diversifying by venturing into several business segments, this has caused the consumer electronics giant to shift its main concentration from its core competency, which is making trailblazing and pioneering consumer electronic products. As a result, this has led to a distortion in the company's brand. A good comparison can be made to Apple, which is also deemed to be a competitor in the consumer electronics realm. However, in contrast, Apple has managed to place emphasis on a few products, increasing its competency and has managed to make them immensely successful. Concentrating on one source of the entertainment device would hand Sony the time to better advance their products that go above and beyond and surpass customer expectation. In this manner, the consumers will not mind and will be willing to pay higher prices.

3. With the Sony Brand being all over the place, it can be perceived that there is no clear sense of direction with regard to electronic entertainment. As a result, this can make it hard for the management in terms of complying with their strategies. For that reason, it can be problematic for managers to organize and execute objectives for electronic entertainment within different sectors of the corporation.

4. One of the weaknesses of Sony Corporation is its competitively set high prices. Despite the fact that a great deal of consumers are conversant with Sony and acknowledge their superior products, a majority of them do not end up purchasing the products as they are significantly priced higher in comparison to those of rival companies. This makes the products to be extremely expensive for a great section of consumers.

Samsung Analysis

1. Samsung SWOT Analysis

The analysis below provides information regarding Samsung's market position. It highlights the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.

Strengths

1. Easy integration with different operating systems and software

2. Customer loyalty

3. High level of innovation and design

4. Low production costs

5. Strong brand marketing

6. Significant share market in many products

Weaknesses

1. Too reliant on other software companies

2. Place emphasis on too many products

3. Patent infringements

4. Minimal profit margin

5. Key rival companies are largest buyers

Opportunities

1. Increased growth in tablet market

2. Developing mobile advertising market

3. Great prospects for diversification

4. Growing Indian market

Threats

1. Rival companies place emphasis on one product

2. Price wars

3. Change in innovation and technology

4. Depletion of one product line impacts the others

5. Competition from Chinese commodities

1. Strengths

i. Customer loyalty: Samsung has a loyal customer base that sticks to its products and this is a competitive advantage over other companies.

ii. High level of innovation and design: Samsung in recent years has been awarded and acknowledged for the innovative products that it has unveiled into the market.

iii. Low production costs: The manufacturing firms for Samsung are located in low cost areas, making the production costs to be minimal, and at the same time, generating high profit margins.

iv. Strong brand marketing: Samsung has been able to market the brand in different approaches and this has created greater growth in market share for the firm.

v. Significant share market in many products: Samsung is known for its diversity in different products that it offers. This in turn means the company enjoys market share in these different product lines.

2. Weaknesses

i. Too reliant on other software companies: Unlike Apple Inc., Samsung does not have its own software or operating system and therefore relies on those of other companies.

ii. Place emphasis on too many products: Samsung offers a wide variety of products and this deters them away from focusing on one product to produce more quality.

iii. Patent infringements: Samsung has been sued numerous times and even lost because of the infringement of patents of other firms. This ruins the brand as well as the financial health of Samsung.

iv. Minimal profit margin: Due to price cuts, the company enjoys very low profit margins, which is not healthy financially for the firm.

v. Key rival companies are largest buyers: Major competitors such as Nokia and Apple are the key buyers of Samsung products. This implies that the buyers have bargaining power over Samsung as it cannot afford to lose its major buyers.

Recommended Competitive Strategy

The main organizational competency of Samsung can be considered to be research and development and low pricing. Due to the fact that Samsung had the ability to generate and preserve technology leadership, in the end it was able to attain a superior amount at the early phases of a new product to convalesce its primary investment and if opponents started manufacturing the similar product, it could belligerently lower prices to make it tough for groups to stay in the competition (Nisen, 2013).

Samsung functions on both low-cost and differentiation strategies. In accordance to the information obtained on its reviews, its low cost is largely as a result of lower raw materials, Research and Development and labor cost. Lower raw material budget is attained through manufacturing manifold of product designs on each manufacture or creation line, with experienced engineers positioned to take care and get a hold of all types of eventualities. More outstandingly, Samsung is capable to acquire original design guidelines and apply it to their production (Jeffs, 2008). Another corporate level strategy is the differentiation of products and cost leadership as well. The company is associated with numerous different products which not only increase the sales and revenue of the company, but at the same time, increase its brand loyalty and competitive advantage. Samsung group's organizational culture is to come up with a large product portfolio. The company has a wide range of products and is not only set in the mobile industry. The company is also keen on coming up with a cost advantage by reducing its production cost. This is done through outsourcing and attaining cheaper sources of labor. As a result of this differentiation and cost advantage, the company makes aggressive price cuts in order to provide products that are cheaper to the consumers while at the same time, obtaining a greater market share.

The recommended competitive strategy in overall for Samsung is its continued growth and advancement in research and development (R&D). The company recently opened up a new innovation center in Menlo Park situated in California. Another one is the constructed laboratory for planned research and development in San Jose. In addition, the company is deemed to have undertaken one of the most audacious enterprises, which is the creation of a colossal new semiconductor campus with distinguishing design. This enables the company to significantly have a competitive edge over its rival companies. In addition, Samsung operates a marketing innovation Fund to nurture a creative culture in the business that is intended to recompense internal creativity in marketing concepts and implementations. This program empowers Samsung to piece together information and notions from Samsung subsidiaries that are designed to modify its brand knowledge. In addition to that, they have open innovation center and product innovation team that encourages innovation within the business. In totality, this competitive strategy is the recommended way forward for the company to increase its market share, expand its consumer base and most of all, have a competitive advantage (O'Brien, 2013).

References

Electronic Meetings. (2016). Electronic Industry in Mexico. Retrieved 2 March 2016 from:

Hoovers. (2016). PANASONIC CORPORATION Company Profile. Retrieved 2 March 2016 from: http://www.hoovers.com/company-information/cs/company profile.PANASONIC_CORPORATION.d06ee749b8495923.html… READ MORE

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